Rabbi Boteach has been recognized as the most influential rabbi in North America by "Newsweek" magazine, among many others.
Dawkins publicly denied he had ever participated in debates organized by the rabbi, tried to discredit the rabbi and said his speaking style was similar to Hitler's.
This triggered a public exchange between the two, which has drawn the attention of a large international audience.
Rabbi Boteach ends up exposing Dawkins in his deliberate lies, providing video material proving the author of "The God Delusion" did indeed take part in the debates he said he didn't remember.
"Are you, perhaps, in the habit of fantasizing about debates that never took place?", writes Dawkins. "That is a particularly bold untruth. Our debate, which took place at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, on Oct. 23, 1996, attracted hundreds of students and featured, on the atheist side, Prof. Dawkins and chemistry Prof. Peter Atkins, and on the religion side, me and Prof. Keith Ward, Oxford's Regius Professor of Divinity. Student president Josh Wine was in the chair," the rabbi rebutted.
"In a vote at the end of the debate as to how many students had changed their minds after hearing the arguments, Dawkin's side was defeated and religion prevailed, which might account for his selective memory," he wrote.
Then Dawkins replies: "If we really did have a debate in St. Catherine's I am happy to apologize for forgetting it, although I don't think it is much to apologize for. I hope you will look in your heart and decide whether there is anything you should be apologizing for."
Wait, did you read this carefully? "Look into your heart??"
Richard Dawkins appeals to someone to look into their heart? Ladies and gentlemen, correct me if I'm wrong, but what heart is Dawkins talking about? Surely he doesn't mean the physical heart. Then the only 'heart' left to talk about would be the heart we all have come to know as the inner man, the real person on the inside of us, the immaterial reality the Bible refers to as spirit or soul. How does this tie in with the theory of evolution? If Dawkins is such an intelligent and well-argumented atheist, why doesn't he stick to his convictions all the time? Why appealing to someone to look into their 'heart', when Dawkins doesn't believe in anything that's not of material and physical reality?
Rabbi Boteach points out well that evolutionists don't believe in love. They explain 'love' as some chemical reaction of the brain, all aimed at causing people to procreate. Why talk about the heart then?
What is the heart, Mr Dawkins? Can you measure it, test in in a lab or show us some empirical evidence that 'the heart' exists? And if it doesn't, why do you use the language of people of faith, who do believe in internal spiritual realities such as the soul and external spiritual realities such as God Himself?
Clearly, the professor is a hypocrite, who makes himself look very humane and cultured by asking his opponent to look into their 'heart', whilst promoting his Darwinian brand of militant atheism, aimed at people of faith, who find it natural to speak the language of the soul.
It seems to me that the highly lauded professor is loosing credibility faster than you can say "what a farce". Accusing the rabbi of sounding like Hitler (does this sound to you like Hitler?), denying his participation and loss at debates that clearly took place and ultimately, using double talk and sounding like a humane, moral person, who speaks of the heart, while betraying his own completely heartless atheistic convictions according to which we are all just a species only a little higher than ap this es.
For more on the topic, check out the original WND article, which inspired me to pen this commentary.
George Bakalov
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